"MPRA's provisions allowing retirees' pension benefits to be cut in order to reduce liabilities under multiemployer plans overturned 40 years of pension law, and undermined a central tenet of ERISA: once retirees earn their basic benefits, they can never be cut back -- unless a plan completely runs out of money. Yet this new law will allow retiree benefit cuts many years before a plan is projected to become insolvent. The new law's impact will be devastating to hundreds of thousands of pensioners who rely on their benefits to pay their daily living and medical expenses."  MORE >>